Last week

The twins and I leave one week from today. I seriously can't believe it. I also can't believe how much packing I still have to do.

Last weekend the boys and I took one more trip to Los Angeles, to say goodbye to my relatives there. We had a really nice time with my niece and nephew and their spouses and kids and in-laws and and and (all of whom we refer to as the twins' "cousins" because it's too complicated to distinguish the relationships further).

The twins are particularly fond of their boy cousin who is two and a half years older than them. They insisted on sleeping in the same bed with him, even though his older sister had a sleepover our second night there, so her bed was available. "That's a GIRL'S bed," Baby A told me scornfully, when I suggested it. "We don't like PRETTY beds. We're BOYS." Here they are, all crammed together in the non-pretty boy's bed at story time.

My niece and I wonder whether they will remember this friendship. If we don't see each other for a year or two, will they forget all about each other?

I have some memories from the year I turned five. My family flew from California to New York to visit my uncle and aunt. I remember my aunt teaching me the alphabet. Then my mother, my little sister, and I drove all the way back across country in my uncle and aunt's camper. In South Dakota -- or was it Minnesota? -- I got a tick on my scalp and my mother's cousin removed it. I remember that. So maybe my boys will remember the fun they had at this young age.

One of the unexpected benefits of our visit last weekend was that it made me pay attention to what's been going on in Boston. I have to confess that the whole Boston Marathon tragedy didn't really penetrate my consciousness until I got away from all my boxes. Isn't that awful? Talk about self-absorbed. People are having their legs blown off and I'm fussing about dental problems and undone packing.

I think it's partly because it was too weird to process. Since last December, I've been so focused on gun control. Yes, guns were involved in this disaster, but they weren't the cause of most of the mayhem. What do we do now, ban pressure cookers? Or just keep on keeping on, waiting for the next awful thing to happen?

But when we arrived at my niece's house in LA on Friday, she and her husband were watching live coverage of the tracking and eventual capture of the surviving suspect. The kids ran off to play without glancing at the screen, and we were free to watch, spellbound. As I saw all the police officers, trying so hard to do good work, and then the Watertown residents cheering them, I felt a bond that I hadn't felt before. I've been to Boston a few times, I like Boston. I wanted to feel a bond with the people there, and finally I did.

Of course, as soon as we got back to Ridgecrest, all my attention went back to the packing and the dental problems. (More on that later -- I just can't write about the awfulness of today right now.) But I know that in a very short time all this will be over and we'll move on, essentially unscathed. Unlike so many people in Boston.